More men overboard

In Newport-Bermuda race, but fortunately all were successfully recovered

Man overboard incidents are at the forefront of sailors minds in the US at the moment following the loss of Jamie Boeckel from Blue Yankee on 25 May during the Storm Trisail Club's Block Island Race.

Remarkably rough weather conditions and big Gulf Stream waves led to man overboard incidents on three of the early finishers in the Newport Bermuda race. All incidents occurred when damaged sails or rigging were being changed. Thankfully all sailors were rescued in five minutes or less. Crews attributed the swift recoveries to safety drills practiced before the race.

Morning Glory

Two crew were catapulted overboard early on Saturday morning when a cunningham strap snapped as Kiwi former Whitbread sailors Joey Allen and Richard Meachan were making a headsail change on the foredeck. According to fellow crewman Erik von Krause, "they both shot 15ft in the air and landed in the water."

Hasso Plattner Morning Glory's German owner (who is a Bermuda resident) saw it all from the stern and immediately hit the emergency button to launch the Man Overboard Module (MOM) and the two New Zealanders caught the inflatable marker within a couple of minutes. "We had them both back on board within 5 minutes," said von Krause.

But that was not an end to the problems for Morning Glory's crew. As dusk was approaching on Saturday, the main halyard snapped, and with darkness quickly descending, they had no option but to set a storm trysail and wait until daylight the following morning to climb the mast and reef through a new halyard. Even then, her crew were unable to set full sail, and sailed the rest of the race with a heavily reefed mainsail. "That lost us a lot of miles," confirmed von Krause, one of three navigators on board. "On Saturday we were leading the race with Boomerang and Pyewacket in sight. By the time they finished on Sunday night we had lost 4 1/2 hours."

A third problem was the amount of water that found its way below during the big dipper ride through the Gulf Stream. "First the engine broke down when water got into the fuel. Then the electrics failed so that we had no sailing instruments or radio to communicate to the Race Committee that we had experienced a man-overboard incident. We eventually got some power back and were able to get the message out on our SSB radio late on Sunday."

The crew eventually finished the race 5th on elapsed time.

Boomerang

The man-overboard incident on Boomerang also coincided with a sail change early on Saturday morning. According to second navigator Steve Hayles, Richard Boyd from Madison CT, was running back with the new jib sheet when he lost his balance and slipped over the rail. "It was all very quick. We had him
back on board within two minutes," confirmed Hayles. It was a manoeuvre the crew had all practiced together in Newport before the start and it all went very smoothly.

Less smooth was the problem with Boomerang's headboard which cost them eight hours of repair time. "We first noticed that the headboard was pulling out of the mast track and had to replace the mainsail with the much smaller tri-sail while repairs were made," said Hayles. "It was a tough job because the sail is too thick to sew. The guys had to drill holes through the cloth and sew it up by hand. They did a great job, but it was during this time that Pyewacket caught up and built up a 23 minute lead.

Bright Star

On Saturday afternoon, six hours into the south flowing Gulf Stream current, Richard Breeden's Bright Star also suffered a man-overboard incident. According to Billy Walker from Duxbury MA the crew were struggling to make repairs to their mainsail at the time Chris Williams from East Haven CT. who was off watch, came on deck to lend a hand. Just then, the bows hit a big wave and he was sent flying.

As the man-overboard call went up, Bill Jenkins, who was on the helm, released the safety equipment over the stern, and as one crewman kept his sights on Williams' head, he threw the boat round 180 degrees in a Quick-Stop manoeuvre. "It's something we've all practiced and everyone knew their role. Chris was wearing a PFD (personal flotation device) and the crew reacted perfectly. It helped that the mainsail was down and only the jib was set. We had the boat turned round within two boat lengths. As we came back alongside him, Chris had his boots in his hand and had to decide whether he wanted to save his boots ­ or himself!" said Walker.

Williams took no time to choose, and grabbing a rope with both hands, was safely back on board within a few minutes of falling overboard.